The World Turned into Zombies, So I Went Back to the Countryside to Farm 32p1

Chapter 32p1: Footprints

Jiang Zao and Li Mi were washing the dishes tonight. By the time they finished cleaning up the kitchen, it was already late. Li Mi went back to her room to sleep, but Jiang Zao was a little full and was walking around in the courtyard to digest.

She looked up and saw someone in the locust tree.

“Still not asleep?”

“I ate a little too much and can’t sleep.” Wen Zhao looked down at her and patted the branch next to her.

“Do you want to come up and sit?”

“Alright.”

“Be careful.”

Wen Zhao reached out and pulled her up. Jiang Zao sat down on a branch next to her. This locust tree was older than Jiang Wuni. It was said that it was already here when she married into the family.

Jiang Zao wasn’t worried that the trunk would suddenly break and she would fall. It was just that her legs dangling in the air made her feel insecure.

Wen Zhao’s hand hovered over her back until she was completely stable before she withdrew it.

Jiang Zao saw that she was still playing with a harmonica in her hand.

“Why aren’t you playing?”

Before she came, Wen Zhao had brought the harmonica to her lips several times, ready to play, but then she had put it down.

“It’s dark. I’m afraid of attracting zombies.”

She spoke calmly, but there was a hint of melancholy in her eyes.

Jiang Zao understood. Today was a day for family reunions.

“Are you homesick? If you want to play, then play. The sound of a harmonica is not loud. The surrounding wall is very high, so the zombies can’t get in.”

Wen Zhao seemed a little surprised that she would say that. In Jiang Zao’s slightly expectant gaze, Wen Zhao opened her lips.

The melodious sound of the harmonica slowly flowed through the small courtyard.

Outside the long pavilion, by the ancient road, the fragrant grass stretches to the sky. I ask you, when will you return? When you do, do not hesitate.

At the ends of the earth, at the corners of the sea, half of my friends are scattered. It is rare in life to be reunited, only to be separated more often. [1]

After the song was finished, Jiang Zao looked at the sorrow in her eyes.

“Why did you stop playing?”

Wen Zhao smiled a little embarrassedly.

“I only know this one song.”

Seeing that Jiang Zao was staring at the harmonica in her hand, she thought she also wanted to play and generously handed it over.

“Do you want to try?”

She looked expectant, but Jiang Zao hesitated for a moment and didn’t take it. Wen Zhao suddenly realized and wiped the side of the harmonica that had touched her lips with her sleeve before handing it over again.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but under the moonlight, she saw Jiang Zao’s lips curve up quickly, then return to normal. She declined her kind offer.

“No need. I don’t know how to play this.”

Wen Zhao was a little down tonight, but it wasn’t because she had been rejected. She just rubbed the harmonica and murmured.

“I wonder if my… friend is okay in heaven.”

“People are born to die. The only difference is whether it’s sooner or later. Given the current situation of the apocalypse, it probably won’t be too long.”

Jiang Zao always spoke in a light and playful tone when she said such things.

As if she had really died before.

Wen Zhao turned her head to look at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention your mother.”

“My mother died of illness not long after I was born.”

Jiang Zao turned her face. “Why don’t you ask me where my dad went?”

“What’s there to ask? Your family doesn’t even have a picture of him. It doesn’t seem very important.”

Besides the statue of Guanyin that Jiang Wuni worshipped in the center of the main hall, the wall next to it was covered with Jiang Zao’s certificates, as well as a photo frame of a family of three.

The woman holding a child in the middle had a faint resemblance to Jiang Zao in her features, and the one standing next to her was Jiang Wuni.

“According to my grandmother, I was born a girl, and the man’s family wanted to drown me. My mother desperately refused and sent a message to her family. Jiang Wuni came and took my mother and me back on a cart. That day, she crossed mountains and ridges and wore out a pair of straw shoes. In our place, taking back a married daughter is considered a severance of ties.”

“That man hasn’t come to see you all these years?”

Jiang Zao was very happy that she didn’t use the word “dad” to describe that man.

“No, and I’m very glad he didn’t. Otherwise, when I grew up, he would have come to pester me and ask me to pay him alimony. How troublesome.”

“Have you ever resented him?”

“I was born with a shallow fate with my relatives. Resentment and hatred are things that people who still have feelings for them do.”

The moonlight was bright tonight. It shone through the gaps in the leaves and covered Jiang Zao. Her newly grown hair looked fluffy. When she spoke, it made people want to pat her head.

Wen Zhao raised her hand, then put it back down.

“Then do you miss your mother?”

“I do. But more often, I wonder why she gave birth to me and brought me into this world to suffer, why she got married and had children and ruined her own body, and left me before I could even remember. But as I grew up, I actually understood her more and more. A phrase that Jiang Wuni often said was that her life was just like that. My grandfather was an alcoholic, a wife-beater, and a good-for-nothing. She placed all her hopes on my mother and me. And for my mother’s generation, the way to escape their family of origin was to jump from one fire pit into another. Relying on a man who was willing to marry her was the only way to leave this place, just like I desperately wanted to get out of the mountains. It’s just that I had a choice, and she didn’t.”

Wen Zhao knew that a person like Jiang Zao, who viewed life, death, and family ties so lightly, did not need comfort. She was already strong enough. All she needed was a good listener.

“You’ve already achieved your previous wish of getting out of the mountains. If the apocalypse ends, what do you want to do? Go back to Linhai City?”

Jiang Zao’s face was a little blank.

“I don’t know. I don’t really have a sense of belonging to Linhai City, even though I’ve been there for ten years, including college. If the apocalypse ends, I might still want to be an outdoor blogger and travel around like before.”

Wen Zhao folded a leaf into a small boat and handed it to her.

“Then… I wish you success in your dream of traveling the world.”

Jiang Zao took it and looked at the small boat made of leaves in her palm. A slight smile curved her lips. “Thank you.”

That night, they talked a lot, about their respective jobs, lives, families of origin, and even the stupid things Wen Zhao had done in the past.

“My mom used to sell pancakes at the school gate. I was in high school at the time. You know, puberty, the time when your self-esteem is at its peak. Every morning when I passed the school gate, my mom would hand me a pancake with meat and egg and tell me to eat it. After a while, my classmates would start to tease me and ask if that was my mom.”

“Until one day, they pushed me to the stall. I looked at the white hair that my mom’s hat couldn’t hide, opened my mouth, and tremblingly called out ‘Auntie’—”

“I saw the joyful light in my mom’s eyes go out in an instant. That was the most regrettable thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

It seemed that the strong self-esteem of a young person would always hurt the people they cared about.

Jiang Zao also had a lot of feelings about this. She also didn’t like it when Jiang Wuni came to the county high school to see her, even though Jiang Wuni had to cross mountains and ridges and take a two-hour bus ride to get there.

The local products she brought did not win her any favor with her classmates. Instead, it made her feel ashamed.

But now, if anyone said that Jiang Wuni’s salted vegetables and red tofu were not delicious, she would definitely curse them for not knowing what was good.

“But it’s okay. You later joined the PRRF. She will definitely be proud of you.”

“Proud… of me…”

Wen Zhao suddenly bit her lower lip, her body tensing for a moment. Before Jiang Zao could look over, she had regained her composure.

“Jiang Zao, actually… I’ve always had a question for you.”

“If it’s like last time, asking if I can predict the apocalypse, then forget it.”

Wen Zhao shook her head. “No, I was just wondering… if… I mean if, I wasn’t from the PRRF, would you still have saved me?”

“Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

Wen Zhao looked up into her eyes. “The truth.”

Jiang Zao looked at the bright moon through the gaps in the branches, her tone light. “No. I wouldn’t have saved someone whose identity was unclear and brought danger upon myself.”

Wen Zhao lowered her eyes, suppressing the hint of disappointment in them.

The moon was gradually setting in the west.

Jiang Zao was about to say more when Wen Zhao had already jumped down from the tree and opened her arms to her. “It’s getting late. Let’s go back to sleep.”

“Good night.” Jiang Zao took her hand and also jumped down.

After returning to her room, Jiang Zao placed the small boat made of leaves on the window, where she could see it as soon as she looked up.

That night, she rarely had a nightmare. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and didn’t wake up until the sun was high in the sky, woken up by Kele. She stretched and sat up. The smoke from the kitchen downstairs was already curling up.

Regardless of the weather, the time between waking up in the morning and having breakfast was their fixed exercise time.

When the first autumn frost arrived, Jiang Zao found that she was no longer in a passive state when sparring with Wen Zhao. After realizing this, she became even more excited.

After dodging a straight punch, Jiang Zao held her arm and pressed it down, her right hand striking her chest, and at the same time, she quickly raised her knee to hit her chin.

A gust of wind came. Wen Zhao’s pupils shrank. She broke free from her grip with a dragon-like arm swing and took a few steps back.

“You learn fast.”

Jiang Zao shook her fist, a fierce look in her eyes, and rushed up again.

“This is called teaching the apprentice and starving the master.”